Finally, a drive-by book drop

INSIDE REPORT

They thought of a lot of good things when they invented the new main library in Oak Park. A curbside book return was not one of them.

Now, the library, in cooperation with the village, has gerry-rigged a drive-by book return in the general vicinity of the Lake Street facility. Let's see ... you drive down North Boulevard (one-way heading east from Kenilworth), turn left into village parking lot #55, drive, say, 100 feet, spot the book box, drop your books, and then exit south through the alley back to North Boulevard.

It's not elegant but it ought to work.

DOOPer just sooper at Golden Globes We may be seeing more of one of Oak Park's own on television awards shows, if Sun-Times TV columnist Phil Rosenthal is any judge of talent. OPRF alum Kathy Griffin, wrote Rosenthal on Monday, is the next Joan Rivers.

E! hired the over-exposed Star Jones-Reynolds to replace Rivers and her daughter Mellissa, who defected to the TV Guide Channel for an $8 mil pay day. E! also added Griffin as a sidekick/correspondent for the show.

But it just may be Griffin who gets top billing next time around. While Rosenthal opined that Reynolds was "humorless" and that her delivery "lacked nuance," and that Rivers had become "a caricature of herself," he had little but praise for Griffin and her sharp, hip comedic sensibility.

"There is ... a place for comedy at these affairs," wrote Rosenthal, "and that place on Sunday was with Griffin."

Rosenthal pointed out one of Griffin's better spontaneous comedy bits. At one point during a lull in the stream of celebrities traipsing across the red carpet, Griffin had her husband give a score update on the New England Patriots-Indianapolis Colts game being broadcast on CBS.

Noting that such luminaries as Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx seemed to prefer the new and ascendant E! team, Rosenthal ended his column with "It was a bloodless coup." ?#34;Dan Haley and Bill Dwyer